family photos

Yesterday afternoon/evening we had some family photo's taken. I had pretty high expectations for these. When we arrived home and and I was not feeling too hopeful about how they will turn out, I realized something. To get really great photos, you really need to have willing participants, which we did not. Especially Sadie. Basically the entire time she was uncooperative, shrieking, and running away. What else should I have expected from a nearly 2 year old, right? So, here's to hoping! And here are some of the photo's Kendra took of our children last year.

checking it off

Today is the first day of September and we are busy checking things off of our 'quick, we only have a few more days of summer left, what do we still want to do??!!' list. Yesterday we headed off to the beach with friends and today we ruled Tinkertown, a amusement park for the younger set. What's next? Definitely more beach, picnics, play dates home brewed herbal iced tea and ice-cream. Oh, and camping this weekend!

a new sandbox

our former sandbox was nasty. we had built it out of cheap lumber and also put a wood base on it(no drainage). so this weekend our kids were treated to a new sandbox! yay! we also relocated it to a shadier area of the yard. it is bigger than the last one, we will need more sand. and a cover - there are a couple neighborhood cats around, we don't want to find any 'surprises' in there!

my strong, willing hubby working to finish previously mentioned 'fun project'.

an already bathed and pajamaed willing helper.

finished.

happy mother's day

I was wondering around and thinking about the perfect mother's day post/photo and came across this(you'll need to scroll down a bit) http://jodified.typepad.com/a_mom_and_her_camera/2009/05/we-wake-up-every-morning-to-little-girl-giggles.html and smiled. For me, dandelions are a big part of mothering in the spring and summer. My kids love giving them to me, constantly, like a few times a day. In fact, it was just this week that the first of the season appeared for us, just beside O's school. Yay! Luckily, I mean too bad a bunch hasen't made it onto my windowsill yet :) Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers in my life, especially the one who gave birth to me!

I deserve an award

The blogging slacker award, that is! Oh well, I am back now. This week we celebrated Earth day and although I wouldn't say we really 'celebrated'(is it really a holiday to be celebrated?), we did have some fun making these compost cupcakes.

Then yesterday I took my oldest 2 children to see Earth. Can I just say WOW! It was incredible! And beautiful! And informative! All 3 of us really enjoyed it! Today was a day off of school for Olivia, so we made use of the Manitoba Museum pass they were given for their birthdays last month. Also fun, but would have been more fun with a dad involved, or with a baby(who now insists on walking everywhere and not sitting her stroller) uninvolved. You know. So I guess we did sort of celebrate in our own way.

Over the weekend we hosted birthday parties for my big girl and my boy; they're actual birthdays are this weekend, but with spring break happening, we decided to do them early. They were lot's of prep and lots of fun! Here we go...

7 year old rockstar fun...

and robots for a 4 year old...

it's party time!

My big girl and my boy both celebrate birthdays in March. We are having both of their parties this weekend! Eek! It's crunch time! Here is some of my inspiration for each of them:

My boy is turning 4 and decided on 'robots' for his party:

My big girl is turning 7 and can't seem to stop talking about Hannah Montana and High School Musical. These are definitely not things we encourage(for many reasons-poor influence and I just am not a fan of crazes like they are) or have ever let her view for that matter, so it has to be all school influence. Anyway, we decided on a generic 'rock star' theme for her party: